


Follow the Path

by BlackPrism



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-31
Updated: 2018-01-31
Packaged: 2019-03-11 23:01:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13534374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackPrism/pseuds/BlackPrism
Summary: G hated his path. That glowing, stupid thing, that was supposed to lead him to his soulmate.But his soul was..not really usual. Would there even be anybody waiting for him at the end?





	Follow the Path

**Author's Note:**

> For thelazyhermits on Tumblr.
> 
> \--
> 
> I write stuff over on Tumblr, want me to write something for you? Check it out: https://bonelynomore.tumblr.com/

G usually never takes walks. Well, alright, he did take walks, but they usually led to the nearest store to buy more cigarettes and then back to his lab. IT was strange having a part in you that just wanted to work, work and work and another that was interested in the work, but too lazy to actually do it. Too lazy to do most things in general.

He did work, that part of him managing to fight off the lethargy creeping up on him. But sometimes he just smoked, leaned out of the window, or stood in front of the door. Puns about smoking and lungs appeared in his head, and he knew it was that lazy side again. “ya know, i always wanted to try smoking, but the smoke just went right through me...heh”, G cringed internally at a pun he himself thought. 

His other side had liked puns, but the amount that punny side of him dished them out in...it was just too much.

And usually, that lazy, punny side also kept him at home or at the lab, together with his...or rather that sides brother. It was strange and confusing even for G, but a good thing about that lazy side was, that it was easier to just take things how they came.

But today his other side, the more active one won, and he took a walk. Not like his active side took a lot of walks in his time, it was honestly just an action fueled by spite at his punny side. And now outside..he didn’t really know what to do.

He was an inside nerd, either working or smoking, sometimes chatting with his brother. He had no idea what to actually….do outside. So he opted for just strolling around, taking in the scenery, wondering about all those little stores and cafes he hadn’t even known about.  
Maybe..he really should go out more often.

And just as he was beginning to enjoy himself, and even his lazy side had to admit that it was a rather nice day out, it appeared.

A glowing path right in front of him. Not again…

“you can’t really outrun this all the time, ya know?”, his punny side said.

“Yes I can”, G whispered to himself.

Glowing paths. They were common under both monsters and humans. Only visible to that one person it is meant for. Appearing whenever one's soulmate was near, within walking distance, leading one to it. 

Soulmates were another thing everybody had, one for each, the paths helping both find each other. Sometimes it was more than one for each, sometimes only one, but everybody had one without exception. 

Soulmates seemed like a weird concept, one person meant for you, the only one you would be happy with. Many at least thought that when they were told about soulmates as little children. But the truth was...different.

Soulmates were just more compatible with you, that one person who you could befriend the fastest, who you would develop a crush on, no matter if platonic or romantic, the fastest. It doesn’t mean they are the only one for you, it just means that they are the one who would “get you” the most. 

And all glowing paths lead to that person's soulmate.

Nobody knew if all the paths looked the same, or if everyone had their own, unique looking one. But everybody knew it only appeared once in every person's life and it was meant to be followed immediately.

 

And usually, that was no problem. Your soul would feel a pull, an urge to run, to follow, an irresistible urge. Every normal monster and human soul felt that pull.

But G wasn’t a normal monster. G was two. Two souls, merged together, a soul that had a shape like no others. Still separated into two, but merged together into one at the same time.  
Something impossible. But something that had happened.

And he didn’t feel that pull, the urge to follow his path. So he didn’t.

Maybe it was the fact that he was two monsters in one, his soul getting confused and just..not receiving that urge. Maybe it was his soul in general, who knew how damaged it really was. It was a strange mass, after all, there had to be something wrong with it, didn’t it? 

Maybe both of his sides had their own soulmate, and now clashed together they both were only...partly his soulmate.

He heard that those paths would sometimes, rarely change when something happened to a monsters or humans soul. But he was something that never happened before, so who knew if his path could even change to accommodate that. Or if it would just break.

G’s active, scientist side, the optimistic one, loved to imagine that now that he was a different person, technically, he would just get a different soulmate, and everything would be alright.  
His other, rather pessimistic side, loved to imagine that the path would lead to nowhere, just end somewhere, or lead him around forever.

But maybe it was the fact that he was made up of two monsters, who would both try to resist that urge to follow their path, that made him unable to feel that urge.

“not worth it, ya know, they’re probably better off without me”, that punny side said, having some rather dark thoughts from time to time.

“They won’t like me, I know it…”, his active side said, always have been nervous and shy.

And those thoughts stayed even now, swirling in G’s head. No urge to follow, rather the opposite. So he didn’t, ignored the path and walked in another direction.

\------

But the path stayed, appearing more often than ever before. His active side was overjoyed, that meant that there actually was somebody on the other end, moving about, almost crossing paths with G.  
His punny side had not much to say about it.  
G himself did his best to avoid that path, even climbing fences and once, in a moment of panic, jumping into the nearest river and plainly swimming away. Strange thing to explain to Papyrus, his punny sides brother.

He refrained from mentioning his glowing path to Papyrus, knowing that Papyrus would urge him to follow it, knowing that the always optimistic skeleton would want him to find his soulmate. So G pretended that he just….”felt” like swimming for a bit. That he just felt like climbing fences and running through strangers backyards.

Both G and Papyrus knew that something was up, both knowing that G wasn’t fooling anybody. But to G’s relief, Papyrus pretended to believe him.

But avoiding the path became especially hard on that one, sunny afternoon G had been shooed outside by Papyrus to buy groceries. G had successfully avoided that duty for weeks, but when Papyrus had enough, he had enough, and outside G went.

And of course, that darn path appeared again, right in front of him, in a narrow alley where he couldn’t escape. His soul started beating faster as he followed it, unable to run, unable to just turn back, knowing Papyrus watched him from the doorway and would make him turn around right away again.

And then he heard something, coming from close by and just out of his sight. Shouts for help, shouted insults, screams.

G was running before he even noticed it, sprinting around a corner and into a small alleyway, completely forgetting about his path. There he saw you, standing with your back against a wall, a knife pointing at you. A group of monsters and humans had crowded around you, trying to pull a bag out of your hand. One of them was holding his head, a bruise forming around his eye, you seemed to have gotten him pretty good. But now they had a knife and things got really dangerous.

G didn’t hesitate, kicking the knife out of the human's hand, and him against one of the monsters. His punny side had never been one for physical exertion, and his active side wasn’t a fighter either.  
But G was his own person, in a way, and he may have found a liking to those...anime videos Alphys uses to watch.  
The human bounced back fast, fists balled and jumped at G, the others watching almost frozen. G blocked his first swing at him, shielding his face, but leaving his side open, getting an uncoordinated kick against his ribs, stumbling to the side. Catching himself, G pushed himself off of the wall, lounging at the human, hitting them with a balled fist. Bone met bone as his knuckles collided with the attacker's jaw, sending him hurtling to the floor.

The other three jumped into action at that, one of the monsters grabbed G around his neck, pulling him backwards and onto the floor, as the second one started hitting and kicking him. The second human tried to join in on it, but you swung your shoulder bag, hitting him right in the head, sending him flying against the monster currently hitting G, knocking them both to the ground.

G, now able to throw the monster strangling him off of him, got back up on his feet. Both humans were out cold, but the monsters were getting to their feet themselves, one of the jumping at you, the other at G.

G grabbed the one attacking you by the collar, pulling him back and showing him against the other, knocking them onto the ground again, before G grabbed your hand and pulled you out of the alley.

You both ran onto the crowded street and to the right, past other humans, monsters, people walking their pets or their children, past shops and cafes, past bakeries and fashion shops. You ran around corners, trying to lose the two monsters, running after you with some distance.

Finally, after both of your lungs were burning, even though only one of you had any, you slowed down.  
Doubled over and leaning onto your knees you looked up at G who had leaned backwards against a wall, both of you trying to get your breathing under control.

“Hey...huff..huff...thanks!”, you managed to choke out between a breathes, slowly straightening up again, slinging your shoulder bag over your head. 

“No..huff...no problem….huff….hate seeing people treat others that...huff….that way..”, G wiped over his forehead, dragging his hand down his face as he pushed himself off of the wall lightly.

You brushed off some dirt from your clothes, taking on last, deep breath, before straightening up completely. 

“Thanks anyway, nobody else seemed to care, and I’m glad I could keep my stuff...and..well..wasn’t stabbed either.”

“Hey, like said no problem.”

You two looked at each other in a moment of silence. G was the first one to speak.  
“So...not to seem weird or anythin’ but...want me to accompany you home?”, he scratched the back of his head while suddenly having developed a fascination with the floor beneath him, inspecting it with his gaze.

You thought about it for a moment. Those guys could still be around, and you really didn’t want to run into them by yourself again. And he did safe you from them, so he couldn’t be too bad of a person. You decided with a gentle nod to yourself.

“Sure, I really don’t want to meet those assholes again, especially not by myself.”

And off you went, G stuffing his hands back into his pockets, resisting the urge to light himself a cigaret.

You didn’t live too far from where you got attacked, so the way back was rather far.

“I just wanted to get some groceries, thought I could slip through the alley as a kind of shortcut, but...well, I guess the warnings about not walking through the alleys and empty streets alone in this city are true.”

G chuckled lowly. “Yes, those warnings do have some truth to them it seems...funny, I was on my way to buy groceries too.”

You both laughed, awkwardly, grinning a bit longer than necessary.

“Oh, names G by the way”, G suddenly remembered.

You stretched out your hand, introducing yourself. G shook it, a bit taken aback by the politeness, before stuffing his hand back into his jacket’s pocket. 

“Phew….my brother kicked me out to the house to buy groceries….and I’m actually the older one!”, G muttered half to himself. You laughed, this time sincere.

“Did you do something to make him angry?”

G placed a hand on his hand, faking to be deeply hurt,” ME? Never!”

You both laughed at that. It was strange, talking like you knew each other already, knew each other for years.

“What did you do then?”, you asked, G grinning sheepishly.

“make a pun..”, his punny side whispered in G’s head.  
“No! Don’t ruin this right away!”, his active side shouted.

G himself, decided to pun.

“Well...guess he caught me...bonedoggling...hehe.“

Your face froze and G swore internally at his punny side. But then, to G’s and both his sides astonishment, you laughed, your laugh melting into a groan.

“That was terrible.”

“Gotta do my worst.”

G could hear his punny side applauding him, while his active side seemed to have lost all faith in humanity. Bonding over a pun…

“more like, boneding, ‘m I right”, his punny side just couldn’t shut up apparently.

And then it was over. You had reached the small apartment building you lived in, and you walked up the three, shallow steps to the front door.

“Thank you for bringing me home, I really appreciate it”, you fumbled for your keys, unlocking the door. “I just wish there was some way I could thank you?”

G shook his head. He wasn’t one to ask for rewards, at least not for something like that.

“Na, it’s fine. Just don’t try to get robbed again.”, you both laughed a last time, smiling at each other as you opened the door and went inside.

A glowing path followed you.

G would have swallowed his tongue in surprise, if he had one. You. It was you! You were the one person he ran away from all those times. You were the soulmate he dreaded to meet, afraid you wouldn’t exist, or that you would despise him for some reason.

But you were….amazing. He felt like talking to an old friend he just met, his soul bouncing with happiness when he looked at you or heard your voice.

You were about to close the door behind you, as G shouted after you. 

“Wait!”

You turned around, your brows furrowed slightly as you fully opened the door again.

“Yes?”

 

“Do...We….You……”, G usually portrayed himself as a cool, level-headed person. But if one of the two people you were made up off, was an awkward, shy nerd, you did adopt a few parts of his personality. Like getting easily flustered and stumbling over words the moment it happened.

“I….How about we get coffee sometime!!”, he practically shouted out the sentence, finally managing to get something coherent out. “I mean...you asked for a way to..well, thank me. How about some coffee?”

You snickered into your hand, covering your mouth slightly, trying not to seem as if you were laughing at him.

“Sure, yes, I know a great coffee shop not far away. Want to swap numbers and agree on time and date later?”

G nodded, pulling out his phone and handing it to you, you typing in your number and dialling. Your phone rang a few moments and you hung up. 

“Now I got yours, and you know mines the real deal”, you smiled at him, handing back the phone.

“Uh...awesome”, G smiled back, smile slightly crooked as he pocketed his phone again, waving goodbye.  
You waved back, now closing the door for good.

\------

 

G had walked back home, head in the clouds, as he kept thinking about you. You...are his soulmate. He has a soulmate.  
He completely forgot about getting groceries, but Papyrus quickly dismissed that, as G told him about what happened. About how he met you. About how that trail he has been avoiding actually led to you. G of course refrained from telling Papyrus about avoiding his path, he didn’t want to have to explain himself, to tell Papyrus about his worries and fears.

G managed to sneak away after a few minutes. He loved Papyrus, but the plans the other was already making for a perfect date, with candlelight and live music, was just...a bit too much for now.  
So G snuck into bed early, something his punny side really appreciated.

The next day, G was pacing from one end, of the flat, they both share, to the other. He rarely spends time here in the middle of the day, but after a trip to the lab, he noticed that he couldn’t really….concentrate on anything. He kept thinking about you.

Going back to the flat was a thing he partially regretted. Papyrus, who always meant well, often tried a bit too hard to help. So here G was now, after telling Papyrus about the incident from the day before, with you and the group of monsters and humans.

And Papyrus was fire and flames to help him out, as G expected. What he didn’t expect was for Papyrus to run upstairs and get a large book, well read, the cover reading “DATING MANUAL” in large letters. Oh boy…

Papyrus flipped through the book, showing G the section about phone call and texts. “NEVER TEXT RIGHT AWAY, NEVER CALL RIGHT AWAY” it said in bold at the top of the page. “Wait for 2 to 3 days”, it said in smaller letter beneath. 

G was sure he would go at least partly insane if h had to wait 3 days. He already couldn’t concentrate, he couldn’t work, and he definitely couldn’t live through 3 days without being able to work, his active side made sure of that.

“just text them this evening, before you go bonekers”, was his punny side's reply to that.

And G wasn’t usually one to listen to that side of him, but only hours later he caught himself doing exactly that, phone in hand, hidden outside in the small shed behind the apartment building. He didn’t want Papyrus to catch him breaking the manuals rules.

He wrote you, a simple “Hi”, sitting there, fishing for some cigarettes while waiting for your reply. His phone stayed quiet. G started to fidget nervously, taking a deep drag from his cigarette to calm his nerves. What was with him, he usually didn’t care, he usually wasn’t like this. His active side had been the nervous one.

“well, we are one an the same now, no wonder your bones get rattled so easily..”, his punny side said, “i’m just a voice in your head you see as a separate person after all.”

“Oh shut up”, G muttered to himself. But that side of him was right, he was made up off of those twos personalities and bodies. And while his active side had been a rather nervous and shy mess, both of them had been...awkward so to say when it came to romantic endeavours.

His phone buzzed and G almost slammed it into his face in his eagerness to look at the screen.

“Hi”, you wrote.

G stared at the three little dots below your latest message, waiting for your next one, not daring to write anything himself.  
God, he was bad at this.

“So...You got time this week? Or would you rather meet up the next one?”

G started typing, almost dropping his phone. Reading and rereading his message, he finally managed to send it.

“Yes, sure. This week’s fine.”  
“Great! How about tomorrow, after lunch?”

“Yes, sounds good.”

G smiled as you send him the address of the cafe. he did it. He would meet you again.

He wondered….did you knew that he was his soulmate? And did it even matter if you did?

\------

G managed to be half an hour too early, Papyrus urging him to try on fancy clothes, and to practice some “casual conversation topics”, so G fled from home as fast as he could. He was already nervous enough.  
G stirred his coffee, sitting outside at one of the small tables, taking a sip as the bit of sugar he added, had dissolved. He wasn’t used to being nervous, he was used to being level-headed, cool, laid back. But here he was sitting, tapping his foot nervously, like a high schooler on his first date.

Time moved slowly, stretching to what felt like hours, and he started to doubt you would come at all, even though it was barely minutes after the time you wanted to meet.

But then a hand touched his shoulder, and there you were. 

“Hi, sorry that I’m a tad late”, you sat down across from G, who immediately managed to drop his spoon. Great.

“Hey...uh….how..how you doing?”, G suddenly wished he had practised some casual conversations like Papyrus wanted him to. He had no idea what to say.

“Ah..I’m pretty good..”, you smiled at him, before waving to a waiter, ordering a drink for yourself.

You two sat in silence for a few moments, not knowing what to say. But you were soulmates, and as soulmates, you had a special connection, like best friends who just met. And that connection wouldn’t just let you sit there, awkwardly, unable to talk to each other.

“Hey..”, you suddenly said, “Thanks again for helping me out. I would have been in some serious trouble.”

“No problem. Couldn’t really leave you there like that after all.”, G scratched the back of his head, smiling a soft smile without meeting your gaze.

“So..you live around here?”, G said, smacking himself mentally. He knew where you lived, why was he asking that.

“Yeah, I moved here a few months ago.”, you said.  
Hm. That would explain why he started seeing his path around that time. You were finally close enough for it to appear.

“And you already have a favourite cafe?”, G laughed.

“Well, I’m a big fan of tea and coffee! Can’t start a day without a cuppa after all.”

G really felt you on that. He couldn’t exist without his large cup of strong coffee every morning. A thing he has taken over from his active side, who also couldn’t start a day without coffee.

“Ah, I love me some coffee too. Can’t go to work without.”, G sipped on the cup in his hand, to prove his point.

“Oh, where do you work?”, you folded your hands on the table, looking at G with raised brows.

“Uhm...you know the Laboratory for applied Magical- and Soul-Technology?”, G asked. Most people in this city at least heard about it, the whole building was rather large and a lot of the cities residents worked there.

“Oh! Yes, sure, I pass by there, every time I go to work. Is the inside as...intimidating as the outside?”

You both laughed. The building was rather large, a very light grey, and small explosions could be heard from inside at all times of the day. G remembers how most newbies in his department were practically shaking in their boots when they entered for the first time.

“Na, it’s pretty nice in there. We even got a gym.”, G leaned back in his seat, looking in the direction the lab was.

“well we all know neither you nor one of us two ever used that one”, his punny side whispered in his head. G furrowed his brows. He really hoped those two would keep quiet for now...

“So..you said you see it on the way to work. Where do you work?”, G took another sip of his coffee, waiting as you took your drink from the waiter.

You took a gulp of tea, recoiling slightly, “Hot, hot, hot!!”

“Well, tea usually is, what did you expect.”

“Ah, shut up.”

G chuckled, as you blew on your tea, your lips curling up into a smile.  
You took another, more careful taste of your tea, nodding slightly as the warm liquid flooded your mouth.

“Well, I work in a small tea shop a bit away from here. We got great cookies too if you ever want to check it out.”

“Well, I won’t have to cookie up a good reason to visit your shop then.”

And only through a few small sentences, you both suddenly found yourself caught up in a conversation. You talked about your life's, your families, the topic slowly drifting towards hobbies, TV shows you watched, a long discussion about a TV show you both watched.

G, who was usually more of a listener, than a talker, more keeping back then actually talking, was suddenly actively discussing a cool theory about the TV shows plot with you, laughing, moving his hands in all directions, coffee long cold and forgotten. He hadn't had this much fun in ages.

And then it was time to part ways. But you two didn’t part like strangers, but like….something more, something strange, something good, something you both didn’t really have a word for yet. 

And you didn’t part without planning to see each other again.

G didn’t know if you had seen a path connected to him back then, he never mentioned the one he had seen when he first met you. Paths disappeared after the first meeting after all, and he..honestly didn’t care if you knew about him being your soulmate, or if it was something you were completely unaware of.

But no matter what it was, something pulled you together, time after time. You often met at the cafe in your lunch breaks, going to museums and cinemas, going out to eat something nice, and sometimes just meeting at G’s or your flat, spending a quiet evening together.

You never asked each other out, never really...dated so to say. You just became something more, more than just friends, like it was a natural progression.

And one day, one evening, when the streetlights were already on and G was accompanying you home, you didn’t immediately say goodbye to each other.  
You both stood in front of your door, you already on one of the steps, still holding G’s hand. You both didn’t say a word, and then you turned and leaned forwards.

Your lips met his boney ones, G closing his eyes, moving his hands to your back, almost as to hold you there, or to hold himself somewhere as not to get lost in the sensation, your's following suit, tracing up and down his back. You opened your mouth, parting your lips just a bit as a warm, smooth tongue ran over them, tracing your lips from side to side, before retreating again.

You stayed like this, for just moments, feeling everything, every part your bodies met. And then you parted, slowly, without a word or a noise, looking each other in the half-lidded eyes.

You pulled away, turning towards your door, a blush creeping onto your face as you turned your head back to him.

“See you tomorrow?”, you asked, already knowing the answer.

It wasn’t the last time you met. It wasn’t the last kiss you shared.


End file.
